Under-fire FA told they must 'build bridges' after bitter vote

Britain's new FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce has told the Football Association they must bring in new faces to "build bridges" following the fall-out from their failed bid to postpone the world governing body's presidential election.

A motion from the FA to delay the vote was crushed yesterday when Sepp Blatter was re‑elected unopposed by Congress despite a series of allegations against FIFA executive committee members coming to light in recent weeks.

The FA's stance earned them stinging criticism from a series of FIFA delegates in Zurich with the fiercest attack coming from senior vice-president Julio Grondona.

In light of that, it is not surprising Boyce claims there is a perception within certain FIFA circles that the FA are arrogant but he is happy to help improve relations.

"England in my opinion needs to build bridges both within UEFA and FIFA," said the former president of the Irish Football Association. "I can assure you that I will do all in my power - if asked - to help the English FA. They need to get good people there, they need to get people who are highly respected throughout the world and there are a lot of very good people in England who could probably do those jobs.

"They need to build back confidence again. England are one of the best football nations in the world but sometimes some people feel there is a little bit of arrogance there - I'm just being honest."

The FA announced last month that, due to corruption allegations made against FIFA in recent months, they would abstain from the presidential election.

On Tuesday they called for the vote to be halted after Blatter's only rival for the post, Mohamed Bin Hammam, withdrew from the race. However, FIFA's Congress comprehensively rejected the motion and Blatter then received 186 of the 203 votes.

Boyce added: "FIFA have come in for a lot of criticism, some of it is probably justified. But they spent $794million helping developing countries, looking after under‑privileged people. FIFA have done an awful lot of good for the world game, but there are certain individuals who obviously have given FIFA a bad name."